


picture it (your future is bright)

by johnnlaurenss



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Painting, Teacher!Grantaire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 14:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11443035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnnlaurenss/pseuds/johnnlaurenss
Summary: Grantaire teaches a painting class.He teaches this afternoon recreational pairing class at an art studio, and this particular class is for 'beginners'. Which means it's not limited to children. It's not, but Grantaire's most common age group for this particular class is 9-14 year olds.Which is why it is absolutely absurd that a man Grantaire's own age is taking a beginner's painting class. It's more absurd because he's sinfully hot and Grantaire is painfully aware of everything the new stranger is doing.





	picture it (your future is bright)

Grantaire teaches a painting class.

Which is usually fine, because it's good money and the kids are cool and they're usually just as sarcastic as he is. They're smart and they actually care about art and they think every word he says is gospel. Plus, they don't laugh at him when he accidentally drinks his paint water instead of his coffee.

He's pretty sure he's teaching future Vang Goghs and Picassos, but he might be biased since he really just thinks the kids are awesome.

In his defense, they really are.

Anyway, he teaches this afternoon recreational pairing class at an art studio, and this particular class is for 'beginners'. Which means it's not limited to children. It's not, but Grantaire's most common age group for this particular class is 9-14 year olds.

Which is why it is absolutely absurd that a man Grantaire's own age is taking a beginner's painting class. It's more absurd because he's sinfully hot and Grantaire is painfully aware of everything the new stranger is doing. Grantaire hasn't been able to look away since the guy first walked in the room, since he breezed in without a care and hesitated for only a second before claiming an easel near the back of the room.

He's got blond hair piled on the top of his head, dark skin, and a frown playing with the corners of his lips that have Grantaire enraptured. He's been frowning at his blank canvas ever since Grantaire gave opening instructions to the class. He's lean and dressed like he threw on the first clothes he saw this morning and Grantaire wants to cry because people are so pretty it's unfair sometimes.

Grantaire decides to introduce himself.

"Is the prompt really that hard?" he asks, scaring the poor guy so bad he drops his clean paintbrush. The guy scowls and blushes and gets flustered when he reaches for his brush. "I tried to make it easy today."

The guy sighs. "This isn't what I expected," he admits. "I thought it was a class, where you'd be teaching and not just telling us to 'paint something we love'. I wasn't prepared for this, I've never. I've never painted before, I need instructions."

Grantaire rolls his eyes.

"Well, this is just a warm up exercise before we start talking about art theory, but thanks for throwing down on my curriculum," Grantaire deadpans. The guy's ridiculously hot but if he's gonna be an asshole about the way Grantaire teaches his class, then Grantaire will be an asshole back. There's not a lot in his life that he's proud of, but his curriculum and these classes are one of them.

The guy swears under his breath. He looks embarrassed and apologetic and it's honestly ridiculous that Grantaire finds it aesthetically pleasing to look at. "Naturally. That makes sense. Fuck, I'm sorry."

Grantaire raises an eyebrow. The guy really does seem sorry, which is... Surprising, to say the least. Beautiful people don't usually give Grantaire sincere apologies. "It's cool. Uh, no offense, but this doesn't seem like your usual scene, so like. Why are you here?"

The man is still blushing. Grantaire decides it's kind of cute how flustered the poor guy is.

"My friends," he explains. "We run this, uh, group. We've got a rally coming up and they told me my computerized flyers just weren't cutting it anymore. Apparently simplistic text on a plan background doesn't catch people's attention." He scowls. "I told them I'd make a better one, then realized I have no idea how to paint. So now I'm here, hoping to learn something that could help me design a more exciting flyer so that more people will come to our rally."

"Huh," Grantaire muses. "That was. Unexpected. But, hell, it's a noble enough cause. Well, here, I'll do you one better. I'll design a flyer for you since I'm almost certain you won't create anything salvageable, but you keep coming to lessons so I can teach you a thing or two about art while you're just filling the stupid prompts I give you. It may just be a recreational art class, but this shit is important to me, so you're gonna learn. Deal?"

The man looks shocked. "You'd do that? You don't even know me. You don't know what group I'm a part of, or what we stand for - what if we were Nazi sympathizers?"

There's a gleam in this guy's eyes that tells Grantaire that the man lives for shit like this, lives for the back and forth and the arguments and the conversations. Grantaire understands. Something about debating and being passionate and spreading your beliefs used to appeal to Grantaire too, when he was younger and cared about that sort of thing.

But times are hard for dreamers, so Grantaire moved on.

He shrugs carelessly and gestures to the backpack at the guy's feet.

"You've got a lot of shit on your backpack advocating very clearly for what you believe in. We're luckily on the same page," Grantaire says. It's a little bit of s stretch - they're all things Grantaire supports but feels like don't help in the end - and Grantaire doesn't clarify because this ridiculously beautiful person doesn't need to know how cynical Grantaire is.

The guy visibly relaxes. He looks even cuter when he's not stressed out, and Grantaire is frustrated because he's really got to get his head back in the game to teach this class. Their next prompt is gonna be 'greek mythology' so Grantaire can paint this Adonis.

"Thanks," the guy says.

"No problem," Grantaire laughs. He sticks out his hand. "I'm Grantaire."

The beautiful guy shakes his hand and Grantaire is not above admitting that sparks definitely fly. He's really not biased or influenced by his attraction at all.

"Enjolras," he introduces.

Grantaire has a heart attack.

"You're Enjolras?" he almost yelps. The guy looks started. "Holy fuck. Bossuet and Joly tell me about you all the time. They always try to get me to go to your meetings but they start the same time as my advanced painting class."

Enjolras laughs. "Oh! Grantaire. R. Yeah, they've told me about you, too. It's nice to finally have a face to place to the name."

Grantaire shakes his head. "I can't believe you're Enjolras."

"Why?"

Grantaire bites his lip. "They said this guy was charismatic, charming and powerful and attention grabbing. You're definitely attention grabbing, don't get me wrong. But you're... so flustered."

Enjolras blushes again, which honestly just proves Grantaire's point. "That's not fair," he groans. "I am charismatic. You're just."

He mumbles something that Grantaire doesn't quite hear.

"Say again?" Grantaire prods.

"You're just," Enjolras starts again. He's looking away and fidgeting and it's endearingly cute. "Ridiculously hot."

Oh.

Grantaire wasn't expecting that.

"Oh," he chokes out.

Enjolras keeps blushing.

"Oh," Grantaire states gleefully. "Okay. Well, for what it's worth, I've been drooling over you ever since you walked in."

Enjolras looks up. A grin is playing at the corner of his mouth now, devious and delicious and Grantaire is gonna kiss it away, one day soon if it's not today. "Oh?" he teases. "Who would have guessed?"

Grantaire nods seriously. "You're unfairly hot, Enjolras."

The other man laughs, delighted and beautiful.

"I'll strike you a new deal," Grantaire says. "I'll paint your posters for you if you go on a date or ten with me."

Enjolras grins. "I think we can make that work."

Grantaire can't help it; he smiles from ear to ear and he's bursting with happiness over one simple date and they're both just smiling at each other like fools.

They're still standing like that when one of the younger students finally asks when they're actually going to start class.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on [tumblr](https://feuillyys.tumblr.com) crying abt les mis or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/tannscotts) posting about various things.
> 
>  
> 
> comment, kudos, bookmark below!


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